Acute kidney injury related to crush syndrome during Wenchuan earthquake

Abstract

Objective To identify risk factors associated with the severity of acute kidney injury (AKI) in-duced by crush syndrome and whether the patient required hemodialysis (HD). Method A retrospective study was designed. Within 19 days after the Chinese Wenchuan earthquake (May 12, 2008), 63 victims (33 men, 30women) of 2139 cases were hospitalized at Mianyang Central Hospital (Siehuau, China) because of crush syn-drome caused by crush injuries. The patients with renal dysfimcfion before the earthquake were excluded. Totally 63 patients with AKI associated with crush syndrome were included in this study and were divided into two groups: group 1, 25 patients, requiring HD (when urine volume 6 mmol/L) ; and group 2, 38 patients, without HD. The following data were collected retrospectively for all patients: (1) epidemiological parameters: age, gender, race, time under the rubble, liquid treatmem before being rescued; (2) clinical param-eters: blood pressure, body area crushed, amputation, fasciotomy, blood transfusion, quantity of fluid infusion, urine output in the first 24 hours; (3) initial laboratory data: complete blood count, urine analysis, serum chem-istry, arterial blood gas analysis. Comparisons between the two groups were made using SPSS 10.0. The quantita-tive data and categorical data were analyzed using t tests and χ2 tests, respectively. P -values < 0.05 were consid-ered to indicate significant differences. The significant variables were entered into logistic regression models to de-termine the risk factors for the severity of AK1 in patients with crush syndrome and whether the patient required HD. Results Four significant risk factors with P -values < 0.05 were identified: fasciotomy, cystatin C (Cys C)level, myoglobin (MB) level and lactic acidosis. The odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) were 8.641 (3.027～76.479), 6.956 (3.027～76.479), 5.379 (3.027～76.479) and 4.833 (2.569～32.764), respectively. Conclusions In addition to urine output and potassium levels, we found that four risk factors, namely faseiotomy, Cys C and MB levels, and lactic acidosis, were significanfly associated with the severity of AKI and whether the patient required hemodialysis. Key words: Wenchuan earthquake; Crush syndrome; Acute kidney injury; Hemodialysis; Risk factor